Kane County Reporter

Illinois' 52nd State House District issued the following announcement on March 26.

The Illinois House unanimously approved a measure State Rep. David McSweeney (R-Barrington Hills) sponsored to add sick days to the requirements of publicly disclosed payouts for certain Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund (IMRF) employees.  

Under current Illinois law, some employees of local governments can use their accumulated sick leave to boost their pension payments based upon their total compensation in their final period of employment. Pension payouts are based on the last few years of employment. Some public employees can save their unused sick days and apply them as a pension enhancement, which can result in a significant boost to the total benefits paid to retirees during their lifespan.  

“When passed in 2016, the Local Government Wage Increase Transparency Act was intended to require various large lump sums and other payments that would spike pension payouts to be disclosed,” McSweeney said. “We need to make sure we are capturing all of these possible pension boosts by requiring sick days to be included in the disclosure process outlined in the Act.”  

In a boost for government transparency, House Bill 303 adds unused sick time to disclosable payments for non-union public IMRF employees. HB 303 will require any accumulated sick time to be discussed in a public meeting. The amount of the benefit, retirement date, and the eventual liability for the government of the boost would need to be disclosed to the public.  

“Strengthening this law will help make the public more aware of their local government bodies’ growing pension obligations,” McSweeney continued. “This is a common-sense reform that has strong bipartisan support.”  

HB 303 passed the House by a vote of 115-0-0.  The measure now moves to the Illinois Senate where Sen. Tom Cullerton (D-Villa Park) is the lead sponsor.

Original source can be found here.